Band: ANA
Hometown: Melbourne, Australia 🇦🇺
Formed: 2023
Genre: Symphonic Metal / Modern Metal / Hard Rock / “Couture Metal”
Record Label: Eclipse Records
Melbourne has never exactly struggled when it comes to producing heavy music, but ANA are taking things somewhere considerably more theatrical.
Formed in early 2023, the Australian quintet have created their own distinctive corner of the metal universe, combining symphonic grandeur, crushing modern heaviness, high-fashion aesthetics and an ambitious fictional mythology.
Their name for it?
Couture metal. 🖤⚔️
Rather than simply following the traditional symphonic-metal blueprint, ANA have built an identity where the visual presentation is every bit as carefully considered as the music. Elegant, mysterious and occasionally otherworldly, the band have quickly evolved from Melbourne newcomers into an outfit with ambitions stretching far beyond their home city.
And considering their masked musicians, comic-book mythology and songs about mortality, toxic relationships and personal loss, they’re certainly not doing things by halves.
🎤 Meet ANA
At the centre of ANA stands vocalist Anna Khristenko, whose dynamic vocal range provides much of the band’s emotional and atmospheric identity.
Alongside her are:
- 🎸 Josh Mak – Guitar
- 🎸 Cody Lamb – Bass
- 🥁 Andres Felipe Martinez Osorio – Drums
- 🎹 Mark Shi – Keyboards
Together, the musicians behind Khristenko are presented as mysterious “masked super-humans”, adding another layer to ANA’s elaborate visual identity.
But those masks aren’t simply something the band chuck on five minutes before walking onstage.
They’re part of a much bigger universe.
🦸 Metal Meets The Comic-Book World
ANA’s storytelling stretches beyond albums, singles and live performances into an official comic-book series created through Cynation Comics.
Within the fictional universe, Anna Khristenko becomes a spellbinding deity sent to Earth with a rather ambitious mission: liberating humanity from the mundane.
Bit more exciting than turning up for work on Monday morning, isn’t it?
The concept reflects what ANA are attempting to accomplish musically — creating something capable of transporting listeners away from everyday life into a larger, darker and considerably more dramatic world.
By combining music, fashion, theatrical imagery and illustrated storytelling, ANA aren’t merely creating songs.
They’re building their own mythology.
💿 The Art Of Letting Go
ANA introduced themselves properly with their debut EP, The Art of Letting Go, released through Eclipse Records in 2023.
The record established many of the ingredients that would become central to the band’s identity: sweeping atmospheres, melodic vocals, heavy instrumentation and an unmistakably cinematic approach to songwriting.
However, ANA weren’t interested in staying at EP level for long.
The next step would be considerably bigger.
💀 Motivated By Death
ANA returned to Melbourne’s Monolith Studios to create their debut full-length album, Motivated by Death, released through Eclipse Records on 29 May 2026.
Produced by Josh Mak and Anna Khristenko and engineered by Chris Themelco, the eight-track record expanded both the musical scope and emotional weight of the band.
Despite its rather ominous title, Motivated by Death isn’t simply an album obsessed with dying.
Quite the opposite.
At its core, the record explores the idea that recognising our mortality can provide one hell of a reason to actually live.
Instead of viewing death purely through fear and despair, ANA use it as a catalyst for creativity, purpose and leaving something meaningful behind.
In other words: we’re not here forever, so make some bloody noise while we’ve got the chance. 🤘
🔥 Hate Me
Among the album’s heavier statements is “Hate Me”, a defiant examination of the surprisingly narrow distance between admiration and hostility within the music industry.
It’s confrontational, energetic and unapologetic — exactly the sort of territory that suits ANA’s dramatic approach.
🖤 Sick Love
“Sick Love” ventures into considerably darker emotional territory, exploring toxic relationships and the disturbing way destructive connections can become almost addictive.
It demonstrates ANA’s willingness to dig into uncomfortable aspects of human behaviour rather than relying purely on fantasy and theatrical spectacle.
Because beneath all those masks, elaborate costumes and symphonic arrangements, there’s some very human subject matter at work.
🌑 Shadow Of Life
The mortality running throughout Motivated by Death comes into particularly sharp focus on “Shadow Of Life”.
Its message is simple but powerful: life doesn’t wait around.
Mortality therefore becomes less of a looming monster and more of a reminder to make something of the time you’ve actually got.
It’s an idea that sits at the heart of the entire album.
💔 Papa
Then there’s “Papa”.
Arguably the album’s most deeply personal moment, the song sees Anna Khristenko confronting the loss of her father to addiction during her childhood.
Written almost as a posthumous letter, it strips away some of the grand mythology surrounding ANA and exposes something considerably more vulnerable underneath.
For a band capable of presenting itself through gods, masked figures and fantastical storytelling, Papa proves ANA’s greatest emotional power can come from painfully real experiences.
⚔️ What Does ANA Sound Like?
Fans of bands including Nightwish, Within Temptation and Evanescence will find familiar territory within ANA’s combination of soaring vocals, atmospheric keyboards, orchestral textures and metallic power.
But calling them another symphonic-metal band doesn’t quite cover it.
ANA mix those foundations with modern hard rock, contemporary metal production and a distinctly theatrical identity designed to make the band immediately recognisable.
The result is music that aims for both scale and substance.
Big choruses.
Heavy guitars.
Cinematic atmosphere.
Emotional storytelling.
And enough dramatic flair to make your average black T-shirt suddenly feel severely underdressed. 😂🖤
👗 Welcome To Couture Metal
ANA’s description of themselves as “couture metal” might initially sound like another genre label destined to send metal fans into a 200-comment Facebook argument.
But it actually sums up their philosophy rather nicely.
For ANA, the visual and musical sides of the band aren’t separate entities.
Fashion, masks, characters, comics, theatricality and music all belong to the same creative world.
The “couture” element represents the sophistication and elaborate presentation surrounding the project, while the “metal” ensures there’s still plenty of weight underneath all that elegance.
It’s luxury with distortion pedals.
High fashion with double kicks.
The catwalk has entered the pit. 🤘
🌏 An Australian Band With Global Ambitions
From their beginnings in Melbourne in 2023 to the arrival of their first full-length album just three years later, ANA have developed at serious speed.
Rather than simply concentrating on individual singles, they’ve constructed an entire creative ecosystem around the band.
Music.
Fashion.
Characters.
Comics.
Storytelling.
And an increasingly distinctive visual identity.
With Motivated by Death, ANA have moved into the next stage of that journey.
Whether “couture metal” eventually becomes a recognised corner of the heavy-music landscape remains to be seen, but ANA are certainly making a convincing argument for it.
And perhaps the philosophy behind their debut album says everything you need to know about them.
Life is temporary.
The riffs don’t have to be. 🔥🤘
🎸 ANA – Band Line-Up
Anna Khristenko – Vocals
Josh Mak – Guitar
Cody Lamb – Bass
Andres Felipe Martinez Osorio – Drums
Mark Shi – Keyboards
💿 ANA Discography
The Art of Letting Go – EP – 2023
Motivated by Death – Album – 29 May 2026
🤘 For Fans Of
Nightwish • Within Temptation • Evanescence • Symphonic Metal • Modern Metal • Cinematic Rock • Theatrical Metal
🔥 The Riff Report
ANA aren’t content simply to be another name in the increasingly crowded symphonic-metal world.
They’re building something bigger — a collision of heavy music, fashion, fantasy, comics and deeply personal storytelling wrapped inside a carefully constructed visual universe.
It’s bold.
It’s theatrical.
It’s ambitious.
And it’s wonderfully bloody metal.
Welcome to couture metal. 🖤🔥🤘
